For chlorination of aliphatic hydrocarbon by using means of oxychlorination, there has been used a catalyst in which a metal salt is carried on a carrier such as porous alumina, porous silica alumina or clay. Specifically for production of EDC by oxychlorination of ethylene for industrial purpose, there has been used a catalyst for a fluidized bed in which cupric chloride on is carried on an alumina carrier by the impregnation method. However, there has been the problem for such a catalyst that the activity and the fluidity are lowered due to migration or sublimation of copper as an activator component, and thereby, the selectivity for and the yield of the EDC is lowered since distribution of temperature in catalyst layers becomes inhomogeneous and then a combustion reaction of ethylene develops more in portions heated to at a high temperature. In order to suppress migration or sublimation of copper, and also to enhance the selectivity for the EDC, an alkaline metal, an alkaline-earth metal or a rare-earth metal is added to the catalyst.
On the other hand, there has been known a catalyst obtained by precipitating a carrier component and an activator component simultaneously (hereinafter, referred to as co-precipitation method), and then spray-drying the components (Refer to Patent document 1). Further, there has been known also a catalyst carrying an alkaline metal, an alkaline earth-metal or a rare-earth metal on a catalyst prepared by the co-precipitation method (Refer to Patent document 2, Patent document 3, and Patent document 4).
However, the problems of lowering the fluidity, the activity and the selectivity as described above can not be solved completely by theses catalysts.
The present inventors have disclosed a catalyst, which is obtained by using a pseudo-boehmite-alumina-slurry prepared in advance as an alumina source, and adding an activator component such as copper and promoter components such as an alkaline metal, an alkaline-earth metal or a rare-earth metal to the slurry, and then spray-drying the slurry. The catalyst can suppress lowering of the fluidity and also high activity and selectivity (Refer to Patent document 5 and Patent document 6).
However, the catalyst described above has the problem of corrosion of an apparatus used for manufacturing the catalyst because a large quantity of halogen (chlorine) is used in the process of manufacturing the catalyst. For instance, there has been the possibility of damaging the manufacturing apparatus due to corrosion of stainless steel and as a result causing leakage of gaseous halogen or reaction materials to outside of the system. On the other hand, the activity, selectivity and fluidity of the catalyst are insufficient when an amount of halogen (chlorine) used as a raw material decreases, or when other acidic salt such as sulfate is used.    Patent document 1: JP S45-39616 B    Patent document 2: JP HI 1-90232 A    Patent document 3: JP HI 1-90233 A    Patent document 4: JP HI 1-90234 A    Patent document 5: JP 2005-000730 A    Patent document 6: JP 2005-000731 A